By Liadan McInnes- Twin Falls Nursery
Twin Falls Nursery is owned and operated by Arthur and Liadan McInnes and based in Whakapara, Te Tai Tokerau. We grow (mostly subtropical) edible and permaculture plants and sell them online. We help create resilient communities and regenerative action with our free online educational content on food forests, plant propagation and syntropic agriculture. In our 3 seasons of business we have provided hundreds of orders and thousands of plants to individuals, families and communities all over Aotearoa. Twin Falls is proud to be providing plants and inspiration to help support local sustainable food production. We started our first season with a single shade house which was quickly filled with plants, but with help through funding from Kai Ora we were able to finish construction on the second and third shade houses in time for the 2022/23 season.
This Winter we needed to finish the set-up by adding tables to lift the plants from the ground, to make our nursery more functional and efficient before the Spring propagation really ramped up. We initially aimed to do this with used plastic pallets raised up on concrete blocks. This was to purchase second hand as much as possible, for ethical and environmental reasons, and because it meant we could afford to do the whole nursery. To purchase brand new stainless steel nursery tables would only allow us to complete maybe half of one shade tunnel. However we had trouble acquiring the pallets that were quoted to us, and had to look for other options. A friend gave us the heads up on a nursery that was closing down and we managed to buy our entire nursery's worth of second hand stainless steel nursery tables that fit our space fantastically. This was serendipitous as it cost roughly the same amount but functioned much better for the health of the plants and the ease of the nursery. Thanks to the wonderful support of Kai Ora, this Spring our plants will grow faster and healthier, our productivity will heighten, and we will be better able to create more content to encourage Aotearoa outside to get their hands dirty and grow their own kai.
